Parent's evening
by OnceSwanMills
Summary: Emma is running late to her son's first parent's evening appointment with his favourite teacher, Ms Mills. Not wanting to disappoint her son, she makes an effort to go and meet with Ms Mills, not knowing that it will change hers and Henry's live's, forever.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey ya'll! I've been thinking about this idea for a while, but haven't really had the time to write anything that isn't college assignments lately, and any free time I have had has been filled with other non-writing related things! I'm not really one hundred percent sure where I wanna go with this story, but I just thought it would be a cool idea and it could work! Please review if you like the story, or if you don't, I definitely welcome constructive criticism and it's always good to see what I'm doing well and what I can improve! Happy reading! xo

Chapter 1

It's never really been a secret that I'm not the most organised person in the world, but as a twenty-eight year old responsible mother, forgetting my son's parents evening is a bit far even for me. I rush around my apartment looking for the car keys while sweeping my hair up into a ponytail in an attempt to make myself look presentable, while my rather smug looking 10 year old sits with his feet on the couch, making no effort to help me look, and clearly finding my distress and forgetfulness amusing. "Kid, get your shoes on! We're late enough as it is and your teachers probably already think I'm irresponsible and incapable of parenting!" Henry shrugged, evidently still having no intention of moving anytime soon. "Relax, mom, I doubt they care!" he paused, a thought clearly popping into his head, as he suddenly popped up from his position on the couch and began speaking again. "-actually, we better get going, Ms Mils is your first appointment, and as awesome as she is, she hates when people are late!" I suddenly panic upon the realisation that Henry seems to talk a lot about this 'Ms Mills', she's clearly his favourite teacher and I don't wanna put the poor kid on her bad side. I spot the keys on the coffee table- the one place I forgot to look and quickly pick them up, now heading towards the door. "Okay kid, don't worry I'm ready! Let's get going!" I say, locking the door behind Henry and myself as we rush down the stairs of our apartment building, towards our car. We arrive at the school just 10 minutes later, which is one of the perks of living in a small town like Storybrooke, and head inside the school, I quickly sign us in at the reception desk and rush down the hall towards where my first appointment is, the English department. I look around the room and notice it to be rather busy, hoping this means some of the teachers will be behind on their schedules and my lateness won't have been recognised. I glance down when I feel henry tugging on my arm, in an attempt to get my attention. He looks up at me and points to a desk in the far left corner of the large meeting room that has been set up for parents evening. "Mom, that's Ms Mills! Look, no one is at her desk so you can go have your appointment with her now!" Upon looking over at Ms Mills' desk I notice two things. The first is that her desk is super organised, much more so than any of the others in the room, which means that this woman is clearly the complete opposite of me. The second is that this woman is attractive. Like, really attractive. It suddenly occurs to me that I've been staring, and haven't yet answered my son, so I snap myself out of it and smile down at him. "Okay kid, then I guess we should go over there." I say, he nods eagerly and we head over there. "Ms Mills, Hi!" Ms Mills looks up from her laptop and smiles widely at Henry. "Hello Henry, I was starting to wonder whether you and your mother were coming." She looks over to me and extends her hand "Hello, you must be Henry's mother. Regina Mills." She says, confidently. After a brief awkward second of just staring at my son's teacher, I finally pull myself together and return her smile. "Hi, yeah, Emma Swan" I say, shaking her hand and then pulling out my chair and taking a seat opposite her. "Nice to meet you Miss Swan." I'm not a fan of her formal choice of calling me 'Miss Swan', but I let it slide as I smile at her and then apologise for my lateness to her appointment. "I'm really sorry about how late I am, I kinda lost my car keys!" I say with a chuckle and then continue "I hope I haven't messed up your schedule too much!" she gives me a brief smile and then replies. "It's quite alright, Miss Swan, there's no need to apologise. And no, you did not 'mess up' my schedule, at all, actually, it seems that not many other people apart from yourself took it upon themselves to book appointments with me, I guess I'm just not one of the more popular teachers of this school." She says with a slight laugh, although I do not miss the hurt that flashes briefly through her eyes and my heart goes out to the woman in front of me. "Well, that's not entirely true, you seem to be very popular with my son, he never stops talking about you!" I say with a reassuring smile to Ms Mills. She smiles brightly at this information and it makes me feel relieved that I've made her feel better by telling her this. "The feeling is certainly mutual, you have a wonderful son, and he is a pleasure to teach." She says with a smile towards Henry. The three of us spend the next 15 minutes discussing Henry's progress in class, and I notice that Regina seems a lot more relaxed since the confirmation that my son does not dislike her, apparently unlike most of the other students at this school, although I have no idea why, I can't see anything there is to dislike about the woman sitting in front of me, and the way she is clearly so passionate about her job, and seems to have developed a good relationship with my son over the few months she has taught him warms my heart. At the end of the discussion I smile at Regina, beaming with pride over how well Henry seems to be doing in class and stand to leave. As I'm turning around I'm stopped by the sound of Regina's voice. "Oh, Miss Swan, before you go, if you ever have any questions regarding how Henry's getting on, I'll give you my email address, feel free to email me any time and ask." She says, handing over a piece of paper with what I assume to be her email address written on it. "Thanks, I will do!" I say to her, giving her a last smile before turning around with henry following close behind. "Miss Swan?" she says again. I turn around to her with a questioning look on my face. "Yeah?" "Thank you. You know, for the confirmation that not everyone hates me." She says, the same pained look on her face from earlier, although she still tries to hide it with a smile. I smile back at her. "Of course. It's true, my son really likes you." I pause for a moment and then finish. "And so do I." I say. And, knowing me, I'm probably just imagining things but I swear I see her face light up for a moment. Trying not to think about it, I give her one last smile and then let Henry lead me to our next appointment, trying to ignore the fact that Regina Mills stays on my mind for the rest of the evening.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi! Thank you to the people who have faved and reviewed, I am sorry for the hugely delayed update! I am really enjoying writing this story and have a lot of ideas, I certainly haven't forgotten about it. I will try to update weekly from now on, although I make no promises as I am busy with college and work, so for now here's chapter 2! Enjoy! xx

Chapter 2

I begin to get tired, after having spent the past 2 hours since we have gotten home listening to Henry telling me stories of things that have happened at school over the past week, Ms Mills being mentioned on more than one occasion. _So much for not thinking about her again tonight, Swan._ I think to myself, noting that I have in fact spent most of my evening since meeting Ms Mills thinking about her. I realise that Henry is trying to speak to me and quickly turn my attention back to him. "Sorry kid, what did you say?" I ask, the frustration from being ignored evident on his face. "Ms Mills," he says in a questioning tone, "-I said do you like her?" "What?!" I ask, and by the confused look on his face at my shocked tone I assume I have taken his question in the wrong way. "I mean, I don't know her Henry, I've only met her once, but you seem to like her so that definitely wins her points with me." I say, wanting to drop the topic of Ms Mills since it, rather alarmingly, occurs to me that I may in fact "like" Ms Mills, and not just in a "She seems like a nice teacher, Henry" sort of way.

After another half hour of talking with Henry, I say goodnight and make my way out of his bedroom and into the living room to sit and catch up on my favourite shows while checking my emails. I open up the email app on my phone and scroll through, most of them being either from work or reminders that I need to pay for Netflix. I remember that Regina had given me her email address earlier on in the evening and decide to email her and thank her for helping my son progress so much in his English classes, of course I am also not completely unaware of how I am only emailing her as an excuse to talk to her. I quickly type out an email before I can overthink and convince myself not to.

 _Hi Regina,_

 _It's Emma Swan, Henrys mom. Just wanted to say thank you for helping henry to progress so much with his English grades, he had always struggled before he had you as his teacher. I meant what I said earlier, he really likes you and from what I hear about you I don't blame him, I knew from what he has told me that you are a great person and teacher and tonight just confirmed that for me. Henry seemed thrilled when I told him that you were my favourite of all his teachers I had seen tonight, sometimes I wonder if he likes you more than he likes me! ;) Thank you again, and now you have my email if you ever need to talk to me about Henry._

 _Emma._

Send.

After about 15 minutes of me watching TV and convincing myself to stop staring at my phone waiting for a response from Regina, my phone notifies me that I have a new email. I nervously open it, reminding myself to stop acting like a 13 year old schoolgirl being noticed by her crush.

 _Hello Miss Swan,_

 _Henry is an exceptionally intelligent boy and it is a pleasure teaching him. He also speaks very highly of you, and after this evening I can see why. You are his mother, of course he likes you more than he likes me. I am sure he will have a new favourite teacher by next week, however it means a lot regardless. Since he is so interested in the topic, I will inform Henry that you were also my favourite parent who I have seen tonight._

 _Regina Mills._

I read Regina's reply, a wide smile breaking out on my face, and contemplate whether or not to take a risk. _Fuck it, what have you got to lose_ I think, and type out my reply.

 _Ms Mills,_

 _Would it be too forward of me to ask you out for coffee with me? Tomorrow, 1:30 at the starbucks in town?_

 _Emma._

Send.


End file.
